Spectactors arriving at the Olympic Park’s Aquatic Centre for the final of the men's synchronised 10-metre platform diving on Monday discovered to their dismay that the highest-priced tickets - costing between £185 and £295 - did not offer a view of the top of the diving board or the big screens.

Among those affected was Paul Tarrier, a procurement manager, of Hertford, who had spent £1,180 on four category A tickets, at £295 each, only to find that he and his family were sitting at the far end of the pool with no view of the top of the diving board. “My son, Adam, who is 16 years of age and mildly autistic, is a big Tom Daley fan, so we bought these tickets - which were the cheapest we could get - with him in mind,” said Mr Tarrier. “When we took our seats, however, we just felt completely scammed. My son had been ticking off the days on the calendar for months and in that moment his day was ruined.”

Another disappointed youngster was Wilfred Johnson, aged 7, of Guildford, in Surrey, who was there with his father, Rusty: “I wanted to get good seats,” said Mr Johnson, who had paid £590 for two category A tickets. “Wilfred loves diving and at that price I assumed we would have a brilliant view, but when we sat down we were about as far from the diving boards as you can get and Wilfred’s face just fell.”

Mr Johnson asked aquatics centre staff if he and his son could be moved to one of the many empty seats available - which remained largely empty throughout the competition - but was told that this would not be possible. “Wilfred got a bit teary after that and I felt massively scammed,” he added.

Mr Tarrier and Mr Johnson both felt that ticket prices had been set with only swimming events in mind - both families were sitting close to the finishing line of the main swimming pool. “In the land of the sane, there is no way those were £295 diving tickets,” Mr Johnson added.

Also at the Aquatics Centre was Costakis Constantinou, an architect from West Acton, who paid £740 for four category B tickets at £185 each. Mr Constantinou emailed Locog, the London 2012 organisers, with his concerns in early July after discovering that he and his family had been allocated seats in block 313 - located at the farthest end from the diving boards. On July 10, Tim Abrahams, ticketing customer service executive, replied with the following assurance, “They [the tickets] offer a clear view of the field of play.”

Joelle Moore, Mr Constantinou’s girlfriend, said: “We sat down and immediately felt disappointed and cheated. Once the diving got under way, we could only see the divers from the waist down. Afterwards, we were given a complaint form and told we might get 50 per cent of our money back, but we couldn’t get the online link to work.”

A London 2012 spokesperson responded: “The diving session was a prime session, with tickets ranging from £50 to £450. The nature of the sport means that the action takes place down one end of the venue but we have done our best to ensure that customers’ experience is the best it could be and so far the vast majority of feedback has been positive.”

Last week, Locog announced that it was offering refunds for up to 4,800 tickets to the 10-metre diving events taking place in the aquatics centre after it emerged that some seats in the £50 category have restricted views of the diving boards. However, when asked by the Daily Telegraph if they planned to do the same for higher-priced ticket holders, the advice for those affected was to follow the complaints procedure on the London 2012 website.

Locog have also faced criticism over the number of empty seats - which are largely made up of unsold tickets allocated to foreign countries - at over-subscribed events such as swimming, equestrian and gymnastics.